Cars We Drive!

[HRoi]

Hey guys, I just flew home from downtown LA. Drivers are truly nuts there! Why last night I saw some guy taking a video while driving!! Yep, he was holding up his cellphone while driving down the highway....looked like he was taking a vid of another driver flossing his teeth or something

 

[gomestar]

my little brother lives in LA and my mother freaks out about his "extremely aggressive/dangerous driving. He needs THREE car lengths between him and others on the highway". Which, of course, means he'd never get anywhere in LA.

sure, he's rear ended people before, very minor. His car has also been hit while parked on a side street, and the insurance company gave him a white VW Beetle as a courtesy car, so I think he's pretty even.

 

[venividivicibj]

my little brother lives in LA and my mother freaks out about his "extremely aggressive/dangerous driving. He needs THREE car lengths between him and others on the highway". Which, of course, means he'd never get anywhere in LA.

sure, he's rear ended people before, very minor. His car has also been hit while parked on a side street, and the insurance company gave him a white VW Beetle as a courtesy car, so I think he's pretty even.

Few cars ago - the second day of ownership, i come out to my car missing its left view mirror (street parking).

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Few cars ago - the second day of ownership, i come out to my car missing its left view mirror (street parking).

Non folding mirrors or just a case of being oblivious to the realities of city life?

 

[Find Finn]



Few cars ago - the second day of ownership, i come out to my car missing its left view mirror (street parking).

I had my mirrors stolen 18 days after I got a car, complete interior 6months after and the whole thing 18 months after, oh and it got hit while parked a handful of times within that period.

 

[venividivicibj]



Non folding mirrors or just a case of being oblivious to the realities of city life?

It was a pretty wide street and in the suburbs, not downtown- but thanks.

 

[GreenFrog]

Man, ain't nothing more satisfying than perfectly nailing rev-match downshifts from 6-4-3-2 in succession. Getting 3-2 perfect is the hardest, but the rest are easy peasy.

(No heel-toe )

The cherry on top is when the red light you were approaching to stop at turns green, so you can take off from 2nd without even touching your brakes.

 

[jbarwick]

Man, ain't nothing more satisfying than perfectly nailing rev-match downshifts from 6-4-3-2 in succession. Getting 3-2 perfect is the hardest, but the rest are easy peasy.

(No heel-toe

)

The cherry on top is when the red light you were approaching to stop at turns green, so you can take off from 2nd without even touching your brakes.

I drove my wife's 128 over the weekend and not having driven a stick in 3 months is evident. She asked if she needed to drive. In my defense, her trans was harder to get right than my GTI.

 

[GreenFrog]



I drove my wife's 128 over the weekend and not having driven a stick in 3 months is evident.  She asked if she needed to drive.  In my defense, her trans was harder to get right than my GTI.

I feel ya. My clutch engagement gets a little rusty even after just a week's worth of not driving. Type of shoe you're wearing has a huge impact as well. Thinner soles are better, I find. Worst are sneakers with thick, rubbery / soft soles. You lose complete feel for the clutch. I manage surprisingly well with my dress shoes, but my favorite shoes to drive in are my cheap ass, $20 ked sneakers that have the thinnest, flimsiest soles.

Do you rev-match downshift when you drive? I've found that most manual drivers just tend to let the RPMs drop so low to where simply easing the clutch into a lower gear has no noticeably jerky effect.. don't understand that methodology at all. Practically means they can't overtake at a moment's notice if they need to.

 

[Huntsman]

When I got my M Coupe I drove it barefoot for a while. to really get the feel of the clutch. Actually helped.

 

[jbarwick]

I feel ya. My clutch engagement gets a little rusty even after just a week's worth of not driving. Type of shoe you're wearing has a huge impact as well. Thinner soles are better, I find. Worst are sneakers with thick, rubbery / soft soles. You lose complete feel for the clutch. I manage surprisingly well with my dress shoes, but my favorite shoes to drive in are my cheap ass, $20 ked sneakers that have the thinnest, flimsiest soles.

Do you rev-match downshift when you drive? I've found that most manual drivers just tend to let the RPMs drop so low to where simply easing the clutch into a lower gear has no noticeably jerky effect.. don't understand that methodology at all. Practically means they can't overtake at a moment's notice if they need to.

I don't rev match on down shifts. I do RPM drop that you mention as rev matching seems like you are aggressively driving at all times. My issue with her car is it is a long, heavy clutch so when you let off the gas, shift, then gas on if not super fast, it's jerky. There is less of an effect if you go higher into the RPM range then shift but I don't drive the car enough to remember that.

 

[GreenFrog]



I don't rev match on down shifts.  I do RPM drop that you mention as rev matching seems like you are aggressively driving at all times.  My issue with her car is it is a long, heavy clutch so when you let off the gas, shift, then gas on if not super fast, it's jerky.  There is less of an effect if you go higher into the RPM range then shift but I don't drive the car enough to remember that.

Not aggressively at all (sometimes). In my example above, I was coming to a stop and wasnt trying to overtake anyone.

I guess most modern automatics that prioritize fuel economy don't downshift until you get to 1.5K rpm, so maybe rev match downshifting is aggressive by those standards.

I just think it's good fun. Get to blip the throttle and hear dat exhaust.

 

[ramuman]

My karma finally caught up to me. Hit a piece of debris yesterday on the 405 in the Tesla. 2k repair job. I'll have it back by the weekend, but it sucks. It was something rubber like - maybe a tire, but hit three different panels around the front nacelle.

I have a 1k deductible and doing a back of the envelope insurance rate estimate - plus the deal killer that State Farm would report it to carfax, while Tesla's body shop on their own wouldn't, it made sense to just pay it out of pocket.

 

[gomestar]



My karma finally caught up to me.

 

[ramuman]



Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I might have had to replace 2 Michelin SSs and fix another and eat this bill in the last month, but I'm not Fisker level destitute...yet.